A set of three ingots with ideograms engraved – health, happiness and success.

Happiness, health and success silver ingots

They were required for a special birthday early in 2018. To avoid stress, the engraving was done in 2017 (not by me!) and the assay done in 2018 so that the date letter was correct. However a normal stamped hallmark could damage the ideograms so they were laser hallmarked.

I’m ocasionally asked whether I work in gold. The answer is yes – but only on request. Here are two recent examples. The earrings are about 20mm in diameter. The ring was made to complement a similar silver ring.

I decided to make a lozenge or diamond shape this year rather than my normal rectangular shape. I have one available from my shop, but otherwise 2018 ingots – of whatever shape is required – can be made on request.

Today, I ran a day course for two friends who wanted to learn the basics of working with silver.

In the morning I went through the stages of making a silver ring – we made one each. In the afternoon, the two friends made motifs to go on a bracelet. We made up the design over lunchtime and implemented it in the afternoon.

They experienced soldering, using the piercing saw, doming, and polishing and learnt about the metal, assay and various other tools and techniques.

I understand this design is a very much simplified form of a thai tiger tattoo. It has a certain pleasing symmetry and simplicity.

Silver yantra pendant

The client and I discussed various permutations after I made a few copper test pieces – adding gemstones in the loops or having the shape on a backing sheet forming a further geometric shape, but we decided embellishments would not complement the basic shape.

The White Horses in this variant are the same size as the earlier pendant, but in this commission they were requested to be on a green background. Each horse is in a silver oval with the edge about the same height as the horse. The green, low temperature enamel provides the required colour, but only as a relatively thin layer so that the horse stands proud of the enamel – a reversal of the real thing where the white chalk layer is slightly below ground level (if I remember correctly). These pendants are Christmas gifts from a mother to three daughters. As ever when I make multiples, as each was hand cut separately, they have minor differences.

I shall be featuring White Horse pendants and brooches at Artweeks in 2018.